ICPSR Stands for Data

See why the world's top universities, foundations, nonprofits and corporations rely on ICPSR membership to provide data access and training.

Become a Member

What is ICPSR?

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research is an international consortium of nearly 800 institutions. Membership in ICPSR includes access to:

10,500+ studies

5,000,000 variables

75,000 publications

"An incredible resource for researchers, reporters, and anyone else who needs access to information! "

ICPSR member

Who uses ICPSR?

Students, researchers, instructors, staff, and everyone else affiliated with a member institution receives full access to all of ICPSR's data and training resources, including:

Researchers and Students
  • write articles, papers or theses using real research data
  • conduct secondary research to support findings or current research, or to generate new findings
Data Producers
Instructors
  • Bring data into the classroom with ICPSR's pre-made Data Driven Learning Guides
  • Support substantive courses with pre-made Exercise Modules

Benefits of Membership

Everyone affiliated with a member institution receives full access to the data archive of more than 4,000 research studies. In addition, ICPSR data users get:

  • Convenience in the form of powerful search tools, useful metadata, easy access, and curation services all in one place.
  • Data enhancements, including SAS, SPSS, Stata, and R files to facilitate analysis.
  • Online analysis tools for hundreds of studies.
  • Technical help in using data.
  • Teaching tools featuring Teaching & Learning with ICPSR which provide dozens of online Data-Driven Learning Guides to enhance the teaching of core concepts in the social sciences.

"ICPSR does a fabulous job connecting us with the rich data resources that are available to our researchers."

ICPSR member

For Students

Undergraduate and graduate students will enjoy:

  • Learning Support Tools like “How To Read a Journal Article” and “A Guide to Interpreting SPSS Output” 
  • Online analysis capabilities to analyze hundreds of studies without expensive statistical packages
  • The ICPSR Research Paper Competition where students can win up to $1000

For Researchers

Researchers using ICPSR data and services will appreciate the benefits of a professionally managed data archive:

  • Data enhancement. Data managers review and enhance data and technical documentation to make them optimally usable and compliant with disclosure limitation standards.
  • Long-term preservation. ICPSR provides for the long-term physical security of data. We work to meet the challenge of changing technologies to ensure the long-term usability of data.
  • Protection of confidentiality. ICPSR removes identifiers and observes standards of practice that protect the confidentiality of research participants. ICPSR safeguards sensitive data through varying levels of access, including restricted-use data and a secure data enclave.
  • Usage information. ICPSR keeps track of how often datasets are downloaded or accessed.
  • Reviewing the social science literature. Researchers can explore the Bibliography of Data-related Literature that links ICPSR studies with thousands of publications in the professional literature.
  • Scientific norms. ICPSR makes possible the crucial work of replication, verification, extension of findings, and reuse of data that is at the heart of research in the social sciences.

"I have benefited greatly, in both my research and teaching, from ICPSR. It is an invaluable resource in the social sciences."

ICPSR member


More about ICPSR

Find our mission statement and more at About ICPSR. You can also learn more about our remarkable staff and researchers.

Official and Designated Representatives

ICPSR Official and Designated Representatives are the face of ICPSR at member institutions. Find your Representatives here.

Official and Designated Representatives: Manage your membership

Considering Membership in ICPSR?

Request a free webinar